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He said: ‘Nobody is suggesting there’s not a problem. There clearly is a problem. And it’s partly driven by Labour’s fuel duty increases but it’s partly driven by world oil prices.

Concern: Philip Hammond admitted that fuel prices have become a problem for cash-strapped drivers

‘We’ve got a Budget in eight weeks time. The Chancellor said at the last budget that we’re going to look at the practicality of a fair fuel stabiliser and he will announce his conclusions.’

He said the stabiliser – which would see fuel duty fall as oil prices rise – would ‘smooth out the peaks and troughs in the oil price so we don’t get pump prices shooting up one week and then dropping down again, two or three weeks later.‘If we want to change people’s behaviour we need to send long term consistent messages and fuel prices spiking all over the place does not help.’

High fuel prices have already caused 5 per cent of road users to give up their cars altogether, while 48 per cent of drivers say they are using their cars less.

Government sources say Chancellor George Osborne is looking at plans to slash fuel costs for British truck drivers.

Ministers believe that would prevent a repeat of the fuel blockades in cities and on British motorways which brought the country to a grinding halt in 2000.

The plans being examined would see hauliers claim back VAT on their petrol and diesel costs – or see road tax cut for lorry drivers.

Foreign truckers could also be charged extra for using British roads in order to level the playing field for UK hauliers.

Those with a 10 lorry fleet have seen their fuel bills rise by an average of £14,000 a year.

But the Chancellor is under pressure to go further and use the budget to help ordinary homeowners and small businesses as well as haulage firms.

Andrew Cave of the Federation of Small Businesses said yesterday: ‘After two years of very difficult economic conditions, small businesses are not able to absorb the cost of fuel increases.

‘They are either having to cut back on investments they may have made in new machinery or freeze wages or possibly let staff go or, the vast majority are passing those costs on to the consumer which is indirectly fuelling inflation.’

Protect motorist from soaring prices, says Boris Johnson

By TAMARA COHEN

Boris Johnson weighed into the row about fuel taxes last night, calling on the Prime Minister to protect motorists from soaring oil prices.

He said last night: ‘If I were the government, I would think seriously about that fuel duty stabiliser because when it costs more to fill your tank than to fly to Rome, something is seriously wrong.’

The London mayor described filling up his own 1995 Toyota Previa over the weekend, which - including the Sunday papers - came to £80.54.

He wrote in his Daily Telegraph column: ‘Talk about whiskey. It would be cheaper to fill it up with Black label’, adding: ‘The price clobbers small businesses and makes life tough for people in rural areas who don’t have access to good public transport....

‘Petrol is cheaper in virtually every European country than it is in Britain and whatever the reason for the recent spikes we cannot get around the fact that the spikes are jabbing the consumer all the more painfully because the Treasury takes about 60 per cent of your bill in excise.’